Man Who Mailed Heroin Into Jail Gets Sentenced

Lee Edward Amesquita, 37, was sentenced to 8 years prison this morning, for three separate counts of mailing heroin into jail. Amesquita sent the hidden drug to his incarcerated girlfriend, according to evidence presented during a two-week trial last April.

Amesquita cleverly ironed out the sticky black tar heroin between sheets of bakers parchment paper, and then sandwiched that between identical greeting cards, which he then mailed to 42-year-old Marion Lopez at the Vista jail. After the illicit ingredients were discovered and intercepted, the girlfriend was discovered dead in her jail cell. An autopsy determined Marion Lopez died of respiratory failure due to heroin withdrawal; her death was recorded in June 2011.

Lee Edward Amesquita has a prior “strike” conviction and has been convicted of four separate felonies in past, according to prosecutor Jon Oliphant.

“I don’t think it’s particularly rare that narcotics are mailed into the jail, they do get confiscated regularly,” said the senior prosecutor. “I suspect that only a small percentage are actually intercepted.” The deputy district attorney noted that drugs are smuggled in tiny portions, which he said makes the drugs a valuable commodity in the jail, “worth perhaps ten times what they would be worth on the streets.”

"After the illicit ingredients were discovered and intercepted, the girlfriend was discovered dead in her jail cell. An autopsy determined Marion Lopez died of respiratory failure due to heroin withdrawal; her death was recorded in June 2011."

Uhh, so who's the guilty party here? Although heroin withdrawal isn't supposed to be life threatening (such as, for example, withdrawal from alcohol or barbituates), apparently in this case it was. I don't sanction drug use but criminalizing it doesn't seem to work either.

Wonder how they proved that the guy sent the stuff in? Did he mark down a return address?!

This is actually a slightly convoluted story
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/20...
Lopez (the one who ODed), served her jail term and was released during the period that Amesquita (her boyfriend) mailed in the heroin to her.

Later, while she was out of custody, Lopez mailed in some heroin to another inmate named Jill. The heroin was as before rolled thin and pasted between two identical greeting cards (you'd think they would have learned by now that the copper were on to this sort of thing), and once again intercepted.

It was after Lopez was arrested for sending in this heroin to Jill, that she died while in custody, within a day of being booked into jail.